Article wrapping machine



April 1, 1947. c. H. PETSKEYES ARTICLE WRAPPING MACHINE Filed June 9, 1945- 5 d EJ. mm? 8 Kid/AP; 2%

Patented Apr. 1, 1947 ARTICLE WRAPPING MACHINE Charles H. Petskeyes, Davenport, Iowa, assignor to Gellman Manufacturing Company, Rock Island, 11]., a corporation of Illinois Application June 9, 1945, Serial No. 598,468

This invention relates to an article wrapping mach ne, More particularly the invention relates to the provision in a wrapping machine for holding certain folds of the Wrapping for the article in place until the final fold has been accomplished.

In this aspect of the invention, it is the object to accomplish this result by an arrangement which will be highly efficient in use and economical in manufacture.

In bread wrapping machines such as those disclosed in Un ted States Patents Nos. 2,276,590; 2,252,028; 2,235 503; 2,232,558 and 2,230,797, the loaves of bread are generally elevated from a lower runway to an upper runway and during this elevation the loaves of bread are subjected.

to wrapping operation. As the loaves of bread are passed partially wrapped from the elevator to the upper runway, it has been found that the loaves in the wrapper thus completed, have a tendency to unfold during the movement of the bread or other article from the elevator to the upper runway, and especially is this true when the article being wrapped is of a relatively short height.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an attachment for article wrapping machines such as disclosed in the aforesaid patents, which will serve to hold the folds in place pending the complete wrapping operation.

Another object of the invention is to provide an arrangement for the above accomplishment, which may be optionally used, that is, if it be found that the article is of such size as does not require the provision of means for holding the folds in place pending the final wrapping operation, the provision for so doing may be temporarily dispensed with or entirely removed.

Other objects will appear hereinafter.

The invention consists in the novel combination and arrangement of parts to be hereinafter described and claimed.

The invention will be best understood by reference to the accompanying drawings showing the preferred form of construction, and in which:

Fig. l is a perspective view of the invention illustrating one form of construction;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of an article partially wrapped;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the invention illustrating a slightly modied form of construc tion.

The drawings illustrate the preferred form of construction by which the several objects of this invention are accomplished.

2 Claims.

In the drawings, attention is particularly directed to Figs. 1 and 2 showing one form of construction for accomplishing the several objects of this invention. 7

In this connection the article wrapping machines as shown and described in the patents hereinbefore mentioned include a plate It upon which the article is moved, in a manner disclosed in such patents, from an elevator plate I I, which elevator plate has previously received the article to be wrapped from a lower runway (not shown). This plate I0 comprises, at opposite ends, folding plates I2, the plates I2 each having an armate slot I3 formed therein and functioning, when th unfolded portions I 4 of the articl I5 are received in the slots, to fold these portions against the ends I6 of the article I5, The object, as before stated, of this present invention, is to provide a simple and eflective means for holding the folded portions ll of the wrapper I8 of the article in plac pending the movement of the article I5, in a. manner disclosed in the aforesaid patents, to the plate Ill. To accomplish this, I provide oppositely disposed plates. I9. These plates I9, as are the plates I2, are provided with outwardly turned flanges 2 by which the plates I9, and I2, are secured in any suitable manner to the frame of the bread slicing machine (not shown), there being provided suitable openings 2I for the passage of a suitabl element (not shown) by which the plates I 2 and I 9 are connected to the frame of the bread slicing machine. I

As shown, the end portions 2| of the plates I9 are substantially spaced from the end portions 22 of the plates I2. With the provision of such a space between these plates, it invariably happens that the folds of the unfinished wrapped loaves of bread or other articles, become loose and turn into these spaces during the movement of the unfinished wrapped loaf of bread from the elevator to the plate Iii. To prevent this, I associate with the plates I9, retaining fingers 23 each in the form of an elongated plate of proper width and adjustable relative to the plates I 9 and spaced from the plates for passage between the fingers 23 and the plates IQ of the final fold I 4 of the wrapper for the article I5. These fingers 23 each carry slotted bars 24 through the slots of which project the stud shafts 25 carried by the plates I 9. These slotted bars 24 are retained in an adjusted position by washer elements 26 carried by the stud shafts 25 and frictionally engaging the slotted bars 24 through themedium of spring e1ements 21. The tension of these spring elements 21 is varied by means of nut elements 28 threaded upon the stud shafts 25.

As shown in Fig. 1, I provide on each of the fingers 23 a vertical handle 29 and a horizontal handle 30 by which the operator of the machine may adjust the slotted bars 24 relative to the plates [9 so as to move the retaining fingers 23 in proper position in the spaces between the plates l2 and I9 so as to function efficiently to retain the folds of the partially wrapped loaf of bread or article as it is moved from the elevator II to the platform Ill. To complete the invention, each of the plates [9 is provided along the lower edge portion thereof with laterally extended flanges l I which rest upon adjacent portions of the elevator ll.

In Fig. 2 I have illustrated a modified form of construction. In this form of construction the retaining fingers 23 are pivotally carried by mounting brackets 3| secured as at 32 to the plates 19. Each of these mountingvbrackets includesa spring detent 33 by which the fingers 23 are retained in proper position in the space between the adjacent ends ofthe plates [9 and [2. In this form of construction, when it is not desired or not required to use the retaining fingers 23, they are pivoted outwardly away from alignment with the plates I2 and I9. In this form of construction the parts which are a counterpart of those illustrated in the form of construction 'shownin Fig. 1, are indicated by similar reference numerals.

By the provision of these retaining fingers, the unfolding of the folds of the partially wrapped loaf of bread or other article is prevented, the folds being firmly held in place during the movement of the loaf'of bread, or other article H to the plate l B.

While I have illustrated and described the preferred form of construction for carrying my invention into effect, this is capable of variation and modification without departing from the spirit of the invention. 1, therefore, do not wish tobelimited to the precise details of construe- 1 tion set forth, but desire to avail myself of such 4 variationsand modifications as come within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

l. A wrapping machine comprising a pair of spaced parallelly arranged fold plates from between which a partially wrapped article is adapted to be moved, a bottom plate, final fold plates providing together with the bottom plate a channel into which said partially wrapped article is adapted to be received from between said parallel plates for, final wrapping, the final fold plates being arranged in spaced parallel relation with respect to each other and in alignment with the parallel. plates with confronting end portions of the final fold plates and said parallel plates being arranged in spaced relation with respect to each other, retaining means carried by said parallel plates and disposed in the space between the parallel.- plates and said final fold plates and adapted toretain the foldsof said partially wrapped article in folded position as said article is moved from between said parallel plates into said channel between said final fold plates, said retaining means being spaced from the bottom plate to permit the passage betweensaid retaining means and said bottom plate of the final fold portion of the partially wrapped article.

2. A device substantially as described in claim 1, which device is characterized as having means for connecting said retaining means to said parallel plates for longitudinal adjustment with respect to said plates.

CHARLES H. PETSKEYES).

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent: 

